Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-274) and index.

Catching cosmic fireflies -- Out of the question -- Putting the "super" in supernova -- Star-shattering energy -- The search for smoking guns -- Detecting cosmic heartbeats -- Stellar arrhythmia -- (Almost) no star is an island -- The making of a superstar -- Cloudy with a chance of neutrinos -- Not "the end" -- Collision course -- Fallen stars -- Don't blink -- Point blank -- Cats, rats, and fantastic beasts, and how to tell them apart -- Cosmic tremors -- The return of the furbies -- LIGO, we have a problem -- Impeccable timing -- All together now -- Multiple eyewitness accounts -- Furbies--a new hope -- The first bumps in the universe -- The last hurrah.

"This new book explores the pioneering field of transient - or time-domain - astronomy, the incredible discoveries being made, the tools that we use to detect these cosmic events, and the aspects that continue to puzzle observers and theorists. In an engaging style accessible to the layperson, the astronomer and popular science author gives us an up-to-date overview of the "transient universe," and explains how astronomers came to see the cosmos as a dynamic place, rather than a static one"-- Provided by publisher.